Lenskart raises ₹3,268 crore from 147 anchor investors ahead of IPO

The eyewear retailer priced shares at the top of its ₹382-₹402 band, drawing strong demand from global funds and India's largest mutual and insurance investors.

Eyewear retailer Lenskart Solutions Ltd has raised ₹3,268.36 crore from 147 anchor investors ahead of its initial public offering (IPO), at the upper end of the price band of ₹402 per equity share.

 

The public offer will open for subscription on Friday and close on Tuesday. The price band for the IPO has been set at ₹382–₹402 per equity share of face value ₹2 each.

 

Investors can place bids for a minimum of 37 equity shares and in multiples of 37 shares thereafter.

 

Lenskart, which offers a wide range of prescription eyeglasses, sunglasses, and contact lenses, has allotted 8,13,02,412 equity shares to 147 anchor investors, according to the company’s anchor intimation letter shared with the exchanges. These comprise marquee domestic and global institutional investors.

 

Of the total allocation of 81.3 million equity shares to anchor investors, 28.7 million equity shares (35.34 per cent) were allocated to 21 domestic mutual funds through 59 schemes. 

 

The anchor book has received widespread participation from domestic institutional investors, including leading mutual funds such as SBI Mutual Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund, and ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund. 

 

It also includes Kotak Mutual Fund, Axis Mutual Fund, Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund, Mirae Asset, DSP Mutual Fund, Franklin India, HSBC Mutual Fund, WhiteOak Capital, Edelweiss, Bandhan and Canara Robeco.

 

There are also insurance companies such as SBI Life Insurance, HDFC Life Insurance, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance, Axis Max Life, Reliance Nippon Life Insurance, and Tata AIA Life Insurance.

 

Global interest was equally notable, with very strong demand from sovereign and long-only foreign institutional investors (FIIs) such as the Government of Singapore, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Government Pension Fund Global (Norway), New World Fund Inc, Fidelity, T Rowe Price, BlackRock, Capital Group, Goldman Sachs, Nomura, Amundi, JP Morgan, and Wellington Management Company LLP, among others.